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The Death Tax Destroys Family Businesses and Farms

Fully one-third of all small business owners wind up selling some or all of their businesses due to the death tax

Family businesses are often sold off in part or whole to pay the tax.

70% of family businesses do not survive the second generation and 87% do not survive the third generation

YOUR THOUGHTS:

"I don’t understand why this is an issue your organization keeps promoting. To be fair, above a certain level, you will have either an estate tax or a tax on capital gains made during life. I can tell you that it is much harder to do the accounting on the latter. I don’t support this initiative that seems far removed from what I would have guessed the mission of this organization would be."Weston Milliken, Los Angeles, CA

"I am the 5th generation of the Bell-Andrews-Sanders family to have the privilege of being the steward of Bell Plantation, which is 1,000 acres of pine timberlands in southwest Georgia. My passion is to leave the property(in its entirety) so that the 5thgeneration below me willbe able to enjoy its benefits 150 years from now. Our family facesmany threats to the timber business including global (and often unfair) competition in

"Estate taxes are a fair way to insure an egalitarian America. You’re use of “death tax” inflames the debate and keeps us from refining estate taxes to protect small family business and breakup billionare "family" businesses."Anonymous

"I have been a Forestry Consultant since 1982 and have worked with NIPFs for the entire career. Back when the exemption was $500,000 and $600,000 the tax law generated a lot of business for us. I could tell it was always a burden for the families to pay the tax and most wanted to keep the land so they turned to timber sales to try and keep the farm. It alawys seemed that the timing of these sales was during down market times but the landowner had a bill to pay. Now that exemption is higher we do not seem to be having as many death tax sales but I am sure they are happening somewhere every year. Just last year a large landowner... Members Only:Read the Rest of this Article»

timber markets, onerous government regulation which impacts us as timber owners, as well as impacting our partnersin the logging and paper/lumber industry. But, no threat stands to put us out of business in one fell swoop so much as the death tax. When my grandmother died in 1972, my family spent several years in litigation with the IRS over estate valuation, the end result of which was that all of her liquid assets as well as the proceeds of the sale of her home were turned over to the confiscatory tax of the Federal government. My experience in this matter is not just personal. I have spent 30 years as a Certified Financial Planner, and in that capacity I have consulted many clients who have struggled with a tax code, whichencourages wealth accumulation,thenpenalizes it at death through the onerous estate tax.This strikes especially at farm owners due to the illiquidity of farmland as an asset. Furthermore, for the last 12 years we have had to cope with the uncertainty of a law with no permanency. The solution is simple. The death tax needs to be put to death with a total and permanent repeal. Now is the time to take this decisive action."Tom Sanders,Barnwell, SC